The Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar Festival or Spring Festival, is an important religious and cultural celebration not only in China but in whole of East Asia where Chinese traditions are deeply rooted. It is characterized by elaborate decors, rituals, superstitions and lavish feasts. The Chinese greet each other Guonian! (a send-off for the old year) and Bainian! (welcoming the new year) as they observe traditions like honoring gods and deities, visit temples, burn colored papers and firecrackers, dress up and eat special foods.
The 15-day celebration begins on the first day of the first Chinese lunar month called the New Moon Festival and ends on the 15th day called the Lantern Festival. The dates for the annual jubilation is based on the Chinese lunisolar calendar, which often starts from late January to the first week of February of the Gregorian calendar. The 40 days or so around the new year festival is called the Chunyun period, a time when the largest number of Chinese are traveling to and from the mainland to be home for this important family occasion.
Each of the 15-day celebrations are dedicated for specific activities. There's the welcoming of the deities on Day 1, home visits by married daughters on Day 2, grave-visiting on Days 3 and 4, celebration of the Chinese god of wealth and eating of jiao zi (dumplings) on Day 5, every man's birthday (when every Chinese adds one year to their age) on Day 7, up until Day 15 known as the Yuanxiaojie or Lantern Festival, where tangyuan or rice dumplings are prepared and lanterns are paraded to guide spirits home, marking the end of the celebrations.
As for all new beginnings, the Chinese also mark their New Year celebrations with much excitement and cheer ! Well-known for its gaiety and splendor, the Chinese New Year is, indeed, a very colorful occasion for its people and for others over the world. Kicking off on a new moon day, the Chinese New Year is a 15 day long celebration, which ends on the full moon night with the famous Festival of Lanterns. These 15 days of the celebration include prayers to ancestors, traditional meals, decorations with symbolic items (usually in red), reuniting with family, visiting friends and relatives, exchanging gifts, shopping, cleaning the house, wearing new clothes, joining in elaborate parades with masks and floats of dragon and the symbolic animal, majestic lion dances, bursting firecrackers and, of course, wishing each other a very happy ?Xin Nian? or a very Happy New Year ! The Chinese New Year marks the beginning of the bright and beautiful spring and hence it's also popularly known as the ?Spring Festival?. So it's definitely a time to move towards all bounties?love, luck, fortune, health, wealth and prosperity in every way ! And the Chinese make the most of this auspicious occasion with food, fun, friends, family and full-fledged festivity. Do you know why we always have a different date for the Chinese New Year every year? Well, the Chinese calendar being based on a combination of both the solar and lunar movements, Chinese New Year's day always falls on a different date each year. In 2007, or the Chinese Year 4705, the New Year day is February 18. And, 4705 is the Year of the Pig ! So start crowing your wishes now, in case you miss anyone on the special hour !
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